Guest article by Nova Wightman.

Self EnRICHment’s Top 5 Ways to Get Out of Your Slump:

1. Give yourself a change of scenery.  Get out of the house, sit at a coffee shop, lay in the grass outside your home or office, go window shopping.  Sometimes physically moving yourself to a new locale can be the perfect remedy to shift your current perspective.  I even face a new direction when I’m working on something and all of the sudden feel stuck, and bam, just like that I have a new thought.
2. Get yourself moving!!!  It’s kind of like forcing yourself to go to the gym; you absolutely dread it but cannot deny how good you feel afterwards.  Movement of any kind (walking, running, swimming, dancing, etc.) brings you those much needed endorphins that give you a fantastic lift.
3. Get angry!  At some point during this slump process, you’re going to get there anyway, when you are so frustrated with yourself and current situation and you just blow up.  And it’s usually shortly after this that you shift and begin to move forward again.  Anger is a natural emotion, and when used and directed properly can be quite healthy and useful.  Write furiously on a piece of paper then tear it up and throw it away, vent to a trusted friend (might want to give them a head’s up on what you’re doing), scream into a pillow, or my favorite, have an angry dialogue in the shower. Yes, out loud.  Feels great.
4. Listen to uplifting music.  You may not even feel like doing this, and even think to yourself, “I am way too low for this to help.”  Fortunately music has this magical quality of inspiring you, calming you, lifting you up and sometimes taking you away.  Have you ever been really sad, mad or frustrated about something, and then the next song on the radio seemed to have directly addressed what you’re going through?  I’ve also created my own playlist on my ipod specifically designed to uplift me, full of Enya, The Beatles, and some Fergie and Beyonce, too (I can’t help but begin to start dancing to “All the Single Ladies”).  What would be on your playlist?
5. Give yourself a break and reconnect.  Take a deep breath and relax.  You’re out of tune with yourself and that sometimes happens.  We’re human.  We have a lot on our plates and can’t always be wonderwoman or superman.  So give yourself permission to feel the way you are feeling for a limited amount of time, say a few hours or a day.  Get as much into your slump as you can during this time, lay listlessly on the couch, indulge in your ‘why me’ thoughts.  Sometimes we need to surrender a bit in order to move forward.  Then, when your time is up, choose to reconnect with yourself and do whatever it takes to get there.  Journal, meditate, pray, set your intentions and follow through.    

Tags: Nova Wightman, self enrichment, slump

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 17th, 2009 at 12:36 am and is filed under life coaching . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.